Elections Lesson Plan

This is a lesson plan that works well in the wake of the presidential election, and will fill the gap between Halloween lessons and Thanksgiving lessons nicely. This lesson is for my advanced second year SHS students, however because of the uniqueness of the material it can really be adapted to any level students to suit your needs.

This lesson is a well-rounded lesson in that the students learn new vocabulary, get to practice listening comprehension, speaking, and writing. The activity with the Group A/Group B worksheets works especially well in getting the students up and moving about, speaking to each other.

Worksheet 1: Vocabulary warm-up. I seldom do these, but due to the unique and difficult vocabulary surrounding politics, this proves to be helpful. Because of such vocabulary, even advanced students need a worksheet such as this to introduce the vocabulary as they are words they surely have not seen prior, which is also what makes this adaptable for any SHS class. I usually will call on students to read the English word, and then have the JTE speak the Japanese word.

Worksheet 2: This is a listening comprehension sheet that explains some information about elections in America, particularly the one we had this year. I always read these worksheets twice to make sure they get a chance to get the answers, and afterwards I have a different student write each answer on the board, or in smaller classes I will select students to read one sentence each, with the answer. Worksheets 1 and 2 together should prove adequate to introduce the difficult topic. This can be adapted to multiple classes by lengthening or shortening it, and increasing or decreasing the level of comprehension.

Worksheets 3/4: Give half of the students the Group A worksheet, and half of the students the Group B worksheet. Each worksheet has six different questions on it, and this worksheet can also be adapted to different classes by increasing or decreasing the amount of questions. Tell the students to all stand up before doing this, as this is really good at getting them to mingle and talk. Have the students with Group A worksheets ask their questions to people with Group B worksheets, and vice-versa. Also offer yourself to the students to ask questions to. Then have the students ask six different people of the opposite worksheet to answer their questions, and have each student sign their name to ensure that the students asked six different students. Pending how fast students can complete this along with other activities, you can also extend this activity by calling on students to stand up with the person they asked and have them read and answer the question in pairs in front of the class.

Worksheet 5: This worksheet can really get the class excited if it's a big class and the students are very talkative, but it also can work well in a small class. Explain to the students that you are going to make a new country with just the students in the class. There are five positions that the students need to elect fellow classmates for, and next to each are parentheses for the corresponding Japanese word. Simply have the students cast their votes by writing the names of who they elected on the lines given. Don't let the students vote for themselves, and also if you would like to include yourself and the JTE in the voting that can be fun as well. This can be modified for a smaller class by simply replacing the line with the actual names of the students.

Worsheet 6: This sheet can work wonders to spark a class discussion, or can even be modified to move into a class debate, perhaps as a full-period part II lesson the next time. The uploaded sheet has questions pertinent to my base school, however these can easily be edited to fit your needs. Tally the votes afterwards (if it's a small class, do it during class, and if it's a big class and you are planning on having a debate the next time, present the results at the next class period). Even if you don't do a debate you can still use this to lead into a discussion with students to really get them talking.